The chosen of the tormented god
by Tinfoot
Summary: Some think the gods have a perfect union, that they are at peace with each other for the sake of the world. These people are wrong. The gods are divided, they are in a constant struggle for dominance over the heavens. Every fifty years, they choose new disciples, new agents to progress their agendas. This is the story of one such disciple. M human X F Lucario Smut later.
1. The recruitment

**Note: This story is probably going to be unsuitable for any people out there who view Arceus as a perfect godlike being, 'cause this story will paint him as anything but that.**

**The idea for this story came from a Dark souls-esque allegiance chart I saw on KYM. I heard it came from /vp/, but I dunno if that's true. Good job if any of you guys helped make it, it's awesome!**

**Anyway, let us begin!**

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

_I rolled about in my bed, trying to get comfortable. Today had been a hard day and I just wanted to get to sleep. After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy, and soon enough I fell into the comfortable embrace of sleep. Next thing I knew, my eyes were open again._

_But... I wasn't in my bed, or anywhere in my house for that matter._

_I don't know how, but somehow I figured out that I was in a cave of sorts, even though it was too dark to see anywhere far from where I was. I also noticed that I was not alone in this cave. I looked around and saw blank, featureless silhouettes of other people in the cave. I turned my gaze about and saw various rocks set in the cave's floor, set about fifteen feet away from each other in a circle. The rocks were of varying sizes and shapes, but one stood out the among the others._

_A golden rock- no, a golden idol sat in the center of the cave as an almost heavenly beam of light came down from the unseeable ceiling and illuminated it and the surrounding area._

_When my gaze rested upon it, I felt proud. I felt happy! I felt so many things, so many good things that I hadn't felt in so very long! I also felt a desire- no, a NEED to touch the idol. A need that burnt at the very core of my being, my very soul, and traveled up, growing hotter the higher up it got, the more it permeated my being. Before I knew it, I had already crossed most of the distance and was mere feet away from the golden idol. My arm was outstretched and was practically begging me to touch the idol, to embrace it as though a simple touch of it's shining surface would right all wrongs in the world. But before I could move another inch, I felt something else. Something dark. Something... terrifying._

_I felt the need to dominate. And it wasn't coming from me._

_The feeling shocked me out of my trance and made me take a step back. I turned my gaze back to my fellow silhouettes and saw that most of us had apparently felt it too and had also stopped, but about ten others continued to walk to the idol. I wanted to reach out to them, to yell a word of warning, anything to just stop them from making a horrible mistake._

_But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I stood there and watched as the silhouettes continued to walk towards the idol and stopped about a foot from it. The tallest of the silhouettes reached out and touched it. It stood still for a moment, before it fell to its knees and groveled before the idol. I stood and watched in horror as the other silhouettes all repeated the actions of the larger one, and groveled before the idol as if it were a god._

_Feeling life breathed into me again, I backed away from the idol and its group of worshipers. I walked back, not letting it out of my sight as if my very life depended on it, until I felt something bump into my back. I turned around slowly, terrified of what might be waiting behind me, and saw one of the other rocks. One of the other idols. I looked down upon it and saw that it was small, almost humble, nothing like the golden idol that had dominated the poor souls around it._

_Just then, I felt a vision burn into my mind. No, not a vision... An explanation. This idol was that of a god that had been imprisoned for crimes it had long since payed for. It had been bound and shackled by its creator, its tormentor, forced to gaze out at the world that reveled in and took advantage of the freedom it had not known for eons, would not know for eons more. It was a god that hated the shackles of tyranny and slavery. It was a god that wished that no one else would ever have to know the suffering it had known since the dawn of time. It was a god whose followers were tasked with shattering the shackles of tyranny wherever they went._

_Now in control of my faculties again, I looked around and saw that I was no longer alone around the idol of the tormented god. Three other silhouettes were gathered around the idol, apparently experiencing the vision that I had. I looked around further and saw that all the other idols had at least two other silhouettes around it, but none had as many as the golden idol. Most of the others looked as though they were paying respect to the idol; but again, not nearly to the degree of the ones that surrounded the golden idol of the tyrant god. Some were just not disrespecting their idol._

_I turned back to the idol of the tormented god and saw that the three around me had dealt with their visions and were resting one of their hands upon the idol, an almost peaceful look on their non-existent faces as they swore their loyalty to the god. I raised my hand, and held just above the rocky surface of the idol. If I was chosen by these gods to join one of them, then I shall join the tormented god and help him bring about the end of tyranny. I lowered my hand to the idol and a bright light enveloped me and the rest of the cave, blinding me and sending me back into the darkness' sweet embrace._

_~~~~~~X~~~~~~_

_My vision faded in and out as I gave out small groan. I sat up and rubbed my eyes as I looked to my bedside table to check the time. I looked to the table and saw my clock and a sole pokeball. "2:45 A.M? Damn..." I grumbled to myself. Why had I woken up so early? As I pondered this, my eyes drifted a bit, right onto the pokeball on the nightstand. With every passing second, my thoughts also began to drift further and further away from how I had woken up so early, and ever closer to the pokeball. Soon enough, it was all I could think about._

_I remembered how I had gotten it: About two and a half months back, my brother had caught me a Starly on his way to that my little birthday gathering that year and gave it to me as a bit of a joke. It had always been a bit disobedient, sometimes violent even, and now that I though about it... Depressed at times._

_As the puzzle pieces began fitting into place in my head, I got up and grabbed the ball. I understood little then, but what I did understand left me horrified at what my brother had done. What I had allowed to continue for weeks on end. This Starly, it- no, he- had a family that had waited for him to come home for ten long weeks. True, my brother may have been the one who caught him, but I was just as responsible as his jailer. His slaver._

_I strided over to the solitary window in my room. Rays of moonlight bled through the panes of glass in a way that, had I been in a calmer situation, I would have called stunning. I could feel my heart beating in my ears, I could hear it! I grasped the ball tighter in my fist until my knuckles turned white. I reached for the window and threw it open as quick as I could while I gazed out at the dark landscape._

_The moon was full and the sky was crystal clear, giving the area an almost surreal brightness. Again, in any other situation, I would have called it beautiful._

_But tonight, I called it the perfect night to set someone free._

_I held the ball up to my face for a few moments, studying it for a few moments before I turned the knob on the ball to the right and bushing it down; activating the self destruct mechanism._

_With my heart still beating in my ears, I cocked my arm back and threw the ball as hard as I could out of the window. In a flash of light, the Starly appeared, flapping his wings in to stay in the air. Just behind his floating form, I could see a faint crackle of blue energy. The self destruct mechanism had fired and fried every bit of circuitry in the ball, destroying it and freeing the Starly. I turned to the Starly and mouthed two words to him._

_'I'm sorry.'_

_Confusion showed on his beaked face before recognition flared across his small features. He realized that I had freed him and was sorry for everything that I had allowed to happen. He nodded once before turning to go with the faint breeze, no doubt in search of his family. I wasn't worried about him; Starlies have impeccable senses of direction and navigation. He'd be with his family by the end of the week. I kept my eye on him until he vanished into the night. When I could no longer see him, my heart calmed back down and I felt relief wash over me as if a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders._

_Sadly, this period of respite did not last long. Only a few minutes after releasing the Starly, I felt it happen again. I felt my heart begin beating faster and faster. I turned my gaze to the corner of my eye and turned my head slowly until I saw a door. The door my closet. There wasn't anything special about it, at least I didn't think there was, I only used as storage. But something was drawing me towards it. I was scared- no, terrified- of what might in there, but I walked towards it. Slowly at first, but I kept going until I was arm's from the door. I saw my arm moving to open the door, even though I wasn't telling my arm to do that. My hand gripped the door knob and threw open the door. I didn't even get to see what was in there before my legs, in a similar situation to my arms, took a leap into the closet._

_As soon as I passed the threshold, everything just went... wrong. Instead of flying into a pile of old crap from my room, I fell onto my arms and knees on the ground. The ground was red like the stone of a mesa, baked red by the merciless sun- yet, it was cool, if not cold. I sat there for who knows how long, just trying to catch my breath. Once my breathing regained some measure of normalcy, I looked up and saw something that clicked the last puzzle piece into place._

_I saw the tormented god, the god that had been punished unjustly by the tyrant king. The god that had been imprisoned for eons, forced to watch us revel in the freedom it had been denied for millenia. I saw the god that had wanted to destroy us in jealousy, but had put that old jealousy and had accepted his new home. I saw the god that had sworn that all sentient being deserved freedom. I saw the god that I had sworn my allegiance to for the rest of my life._

_I saw Giratina._

_~~~~~~~X~~~~~~_

_Giratina._

_Like most other people, I had been taught that he had been banished by Arceus eons ago for unspeakable crimes. Yet, with him floating right in front of me, I wasn't afraid, not for my life or for my soul. He made a small bowing gesture, or the closest one can make when you are a giant flying serpent, and I felt a weight being removed from my back and I felt that I could move again. Instead of running away like most people would, I looked around and saw that I wasn't alone in the slightest._

_To my left and right, three other people were on the ground like I was. To my right was a woman with brown hair and green eyes. The pajamas that she wore made it seem like she was from Unova, like I was. To my right I could see two young men that looked very much like they were twins. Their black hair and brown eyes made think they were Johtonese. I thought that these people were the three other silhouettes from the dream. I looked beyond them and saw that we were surrounded by dozens of people. Some looked like they couldn't be more than 15 years old, while others looked like they were 60 or older. I guessed that these were the feared "Followers of the renegade", as the church of Arceus would call them._

_'You are correct on both counts, young one. I applaud you for your skills in deduction.' Said a voice that boomed in my head and made me jump. The voice was androgynous but leaned more to the masculine side. I looked to my sides a few times before I simply looked up at the god that floated before m, the unspoken question etched onto my face. 'Yes, young one, I said that. I do believe you have some questions to ask. Go on, ask your questions and put your fellow disciples at ease.'_

_I felt not only Giratina's eyes on me, but the eyes of each of the other "disciples" around me. I swallowed a lump in my throat and looked back up to the god. "W-why are we here?" I said, trying to keep my voice respectful as I addressed him._

_'Hmm... Thinking of your fellow new bloods first and asking 'we' instead of 'I'? You show promise young one. You are here because the time of selection has come and gone, and you and your fellow new bloods are the ones who chose to become my disciples, agents against tyranny. You are here to recieve training from your fellow disciples to help them in my fight against tyranny. I must go now though, your fellows shall help you in your training. Goodbye and may we meet again.' Giratina said in his booming telepathic voice before he turned around and flew away from the 'cliff' where we had appeared, deeper into the void._

_I looked around at my fellow 'new bloods' and saw that they were staring blankly out at the void where Giratina had gone, no doubt in some form of shock due what they had just seen. I got back up onto shaky legs and walked over to the others and helped them up to their feet. They seemed rather shaken and got behind me as if I were a brick wall. For the first time, I looked over at the crowd that had gathered behind us. I stared at them for a few minutes before I heard someone clapping. A few seconds later, the crowd parted and woman walked through the gap, clapping calmly. She walked until she was about halfway between the four of us and the significantly larger group in front of me._

_"Good job on the reception, wasn't the best but it certainly wasn't the worst. Anyway, congratulations and welcome to the disciples of Giratina! Better get used to it, cause if you got anything in those heads of yours, you'll be with us for a while. Oh, and do excuse Giratina, Dialga and Palkia have been rather... intrusive lately. Now, follow me! It's time for your training!" The woman said in an oddly cheerful tone. She didn't seem to be a threat, so relaxed a bit and followed her. The others followed behind me, obviously still shaken up about what had just happened. We trained in the distortion world for a few weeks, learning and honing our new powers in that time. Most of training passed in a blur, but a few thing always stuck out in my mind; the first I used my various powers._

_By being a disciple of Giratina, we all were granted three powers: A door to anywhere; the ability to enter the distortion world at any door and exit it at any other door in the world. Shadow force; the ability to conjure up and use a blob of corrosive antimatter. And finally, the emancipator's touch; the ability to render any tool of slavery useless with a single touch. When we 'graduated', we were granted one final gift by our leader, the woman from the crowd. We were given a skeleton key, an ornate key fashioned to look like our patron Giratina, it, well, could open any lock, like any other skeleton key. After the short ceremony, if you could call a small applause a ceremony, we were shown to a portal back to our own world._

_The Johtonese twins, Sam and Max, were excited to get back onto solid ground again, even it meant that they would be quite busy for a time. The Unovan girl, Chyanne, was a bit reluctant to go back, she was afraid that disciples of the other gods would try and stop us. I wouldn't lie, I was just as afraid she was. But the other disciples had taught us various kinds of self defense._

_Breathing out my final breath in this place, I looked to my sides and saw the three people that I had come to call my friends, even though I knew that after we walked through this portal, we probably wouldn't see each other for quite a while. With my shoulders set, I walked through the portal and into the blinding sunlight that I had grown unused to in my weeks of living in the distortion world. _

_Time to wake back up._

_~~~~~~~X~~~~~~_


	2. The friend

**Anything in quotes is either someone speaking, quoting something, or reading something.**

**Anything in like _'_**_this' _**is something to do with the mind, be it someone's thoughts, telepathy or dreams.**

**Let us begin!**

~~~~~~~x~~~~~~~

Mornings.

I hate mornings.

I opened my groggy eyes and almost immediately shut them again. Sunlight was flowing in freely through the mouth of the cave I was in, on a direct collision course with my eyes. I grumbled as I rolled over onto my side and tried to get some more sleep, even though I knew it to be futile gesture by now. I sat up, bringing a bit of my sleeping bag with me as I stretched and yawned. I looked around the cave I had been calling home for the last day or two.

I traveled light, opting to only take a few things such as my sleeping bag and my supplies, so the camp was pretty bare. There was my bag, off to one corner of the small cave, a small campfire in the center of the cave, the sword that I had been given during my training, and my sleeping bag, which I was currently in. That was about it.

I got up got ready to begin the morning ritual. What ritual you might ask? Well it is a deeply guarded secret of the of the disciples of Giratina. It was the ritual of... TWO FRIED EGGS AND SOME BREAD!

While my breakfast cooked, I stared into the fire. It had happened again: I had dreamed about how I had been _"recruited" _ten long years ago.

'_Ten years? Had it really been that long already?' _I asked myself in my head. Indeed it had been ten years, even though I didn't look like a 45 year old man. Then again, all of the disciples were _a__ lot _older than they looked. A final gift from our patron was that we were now ageless and immune to disease, but we were far from immortal. We could still die in combat or by accident. I didn't have any problem with the whole ageless-ness thing, most of the others didn't either as most of us didn't have terribly strong family ties. I shook my head to rid myself of the thought and turned to my now ready food, which I was all too eager to dig into.

After wolfing down my breakfast and a few minutes to break down and pack up camp, I stood just outside the mouth of the cave, sword at my side and bag on my back. I took my first proper step of the day and began to walk. I had no destination in mind, just a desire to wander, so this was gonna be a long walk.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

Over the course of 12 or so hours and several miles, I felt someone's eyes on me several times. Whoever was following me certainly knew how to use the trees, as I felt their eyes on me almost constantly whenever I was in a forested area. I couldn't sense any other disciples in the area, so I dismissed the thought that whoever was following me was of any real danger and simply humored my unseen tracker by pretending I hadn't noticed them. I kept walking until I saw the golden rays of the sun setting through the leafy canopy of the forest I was in. I walked around a bit more before I found a nice little spot off the beaten path and began to set up my small camp by laying out my sleeping bag and making a fire pit. A few minutes later, I did just that and began to relax as I waited for the pot of soup I had over the fire to finish cooking.

I listened to the collective sound of thousands of leaves waving around in the summer's breeze and I felt my closing as I was slowly lulled to sleep by the gentle sound. Not more than ten seconds had gone by when I opened my eyes, fully alert when I heard the faint rythem of the leaves shattered by the tell tale cracking of a breaking limb above me and a surprised bark as the branch and its occupant felt to ground a few feet away from me, sending up a large cloud of dust. When the dust had settled a few moments later, I was confronted by the sight of my would-be tail.

A rather stunned looking Riolu laid on the ground, looking as though it was trying to get its bearings back.

I cocked an eye brow at it and my mouth up to speak but, for the first time in a _very_ long time, no words came out. I was genuinely shocked into silence! Eventually I found my words again. "Uhh... You OK?" I asked a little unsure of what the little thing was doing. The sound of my voice seemed to scare some whits back into it, as it jumped a bit and got back up to its feet, looking around a bit before it looked to me with a rather questioning look on its face. The way it jumped after a few seconds made me think it was lost in thought while it stared at me. It closed its feminine eyes and began to concentrate its aura. After a few failed attempts, the two aura sensors on either side of its head rose into the air and activated, the organs suspended in the air and vibrating softly.

'_Can you hear me?'_ A small, feminine voice echoed in my head. I was suprised to say the least, most trained Lucario didn't learn how to speak with their aura; and here I was, being talked to by a little Riolu, and a wild one at that!

"Aye, I hear ya. Mind telling me why you were following me?" I said a little accusingly. The little Riolu seized up a bit and her cheeks flushed as she looked away, obviously embarresed about me knowing that she had been following me. "Oh come on, I don't bite. No need to be afraid of me, don't have any pokeballs or pokemon with me." That got to her. She looked around a bit, obviously still nervous, before she moved to take a seat a little ways from me. She looked rather odd; sitting on the ground with her aura sensors still hovering in the air like that. I'll give her one thing; she is _very _talented with her aura.

'_Well... you know how Riolus need to forge a strong bond with someone, usually their trainer, to evolve?' _She started. I nodded and motioned her to continue with a roll of my wrist. '_Well, when I was looking for a trainer, I saw your aura. It was so weird; it was all inky and black and evil, but as I tailed you... I saw that it was anything but. So I followed you to investigate, the branch broke... and here we_ are.' She said, easing the nervousness out of her voice with each word, soon sounding so at east that she was talking with her best friend.

I nodded and mumbled something as she mentioned my bi-polar aura. All disciples of Giratina had that. It even affected people too, making them say that we just gave off an air of... _wrongness _until they get to know us. I waddled over on my knees to the campfire, or more accurately, to the pot that held my dinner. I produced a ladle and a bowl, and began to serve myself up some stew. After filling my bowl and grabbing a spoon from my pack, I was about to dig in... right up until I heard an almost comically loud rumble from my "guest's" stomach. I turned my gaze to her and saw her fidgeting embarresedly. '_Not much self confidence in this one.'_ I mentally noted. I sighed and handed the bowl to her. "Here, you probably haven't had a decent meal in a good while." She looked to bowl and then to me, an incredulous look on her face. "What? Don't you know how to use a spoon?"

She turned her gaze to ground and stared at it, looking as though she was ashamed about something. '_No...' _ She admitted, her voice just as laced with shame as her face. I felt a bit bad for the poor girl. I sighed again lightly as I repositioned my self so I was sitting across the bowl from her. I picked up the spoon, filled it with the stew and held it up for her. Her nose wrinkled a bit as the surely alien scent of the stew entered her nostrils.

"Open up." I said simply. She looked up, still a bit of shame showing on her features, but complied and opened her mouth. For the next fifteen minutes, I sat there and spoon fed a Riolu who had been tailing me for a while because of my weird aura. The world works in mysterious ways, doesn't it? When I set the empty bowl down, I quickly became aware of how late it was. Sure, it may have just been 8 P.M or so, but when you rise with the sun, you tend to go down with it too. I unrolled my sleeping bag, put out the camp fire and was about to zip up the bag when I saw the Riolu looking rather distressed.

"Something wrong?" I asked a little sleepily. She looked over to me with a helpless look on her face.

'_Where am I going to sleep, Master?'_ She asked innocently. Upon hearing the word master in my mind, I snapped awake, all thoughts of sleep in the forseeable future banished from my mind. I sat bolt upright with my expression steely.

"First of all, I am _NOT_ your master. Second of all," With that out of the way, my expression softened and my back relaxed a bit. "You can sleep where ever you like. But why aren't you going home?" I asked, my voice soft again. I was actually curious as to why she hadn't left yet.

The Riolu tilted her head. '_Don't you remember Mas- Mister? I said I was looking for a trainer and I found you.' _She said, thankfully catching herself before she said I was her master again. I sighed for what must have been the umpteenth time that day alone and put my head in my hands. These kinds of encounters were rare, but they still happened; a pokemon meets me and decides they want to join me for whatever reason, and I have to convince them otherwise. My job is just too dangerous for them and they'd grow to resent me soon enough.

At least, that's what I kept telling myself to justify turning them away.

"Believe me little one, you don't want to go with me. You'd be better off going back to where ever it is that you call home and living your life in peace, 'cause I can't guarantee that you'll get much of that if you come with me." I said, not giving her the time to answer by diving back into the sleeping bag and pretending I was asleep; a skill I had suprisingly large amounts of practice with. She was silent for a few minutes before I heard her get up to her feet and walk a bit. I thought I had won until I felt a slightly heavy weight rest on my side. I creaked open an eye and saw that she was laying on my side as if I was a huge pillow. She looked up at me with a determined look in her eye and, as if just to spite me, snuggled a bit deeper into the sleeping bag's surface. I sighed again, this in my mind, this was gonna be difficult. I shouldered aside the hunger that gnawed at me from the inside from not having dinner and laid down to go to sleep for real this time.

~~~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~~~

I woke up an unknown amount of time later. I didn't know where I was, but it came back to me soon enough. I looked around for what had woken me, and my gaze eventually settled on the little Riolu that still held her spot just outside my sleeping bag. Even though she was a bit skittish, she could be determined at times, I'll give her that. I then noticed that every few seconds, she shivered. A moment later my sleep addled mind remembered that even though it was summer, it still could get rather cold at night. Being as careful as I could, I reached down and gently lifted the Riolu up, and took her into the warm confines of the sleeping bag with me.

Once I had zipped the bag back up, I looked down to her sleeping form and saw a faint, almost non-existant, smile on her face. If she was gonna stick around, might as well keep her comfortable. I layed back and let sleep take be once again, but this time, I had someone to share the night with.

A friend.

It's been far too long since I've had a friend.

~~~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~~~

Sunlight found its way into my eyes once again as I groaned, alerting the world around to my conciousness. I sat up and rubbed my eyes a bit before I noticed that my chest was currently sporting an unusually large amount of weight on it. I fumbled with the zipper on the sleeping bag, eventually getting it undone, and revealing the (somehow) still sleeping Riolu from yesterday. I stared dumbly at the lightly snoring mass of blue fur until memories from the previous night crept into my mind and brought the rare smile onto my face.

I somehow managed to get up and out of the sleeping bag without waking her. '_Quite the heavy sleeper for such a small person.'_ I thought to myself as I stretched and heard my various joints pop satisfyingly. I started the campfire up again and began to make breakfast. I was about to put the supplies away when I remembered that I now had to cook for two. It's been a long time since I've had to cook for two. I added an extra couple of eggs and waited for them to cook. When they were done and served, the little Riolu still hadn't woken up. Out of ideas and with food getting colder with every second, I placed the scrambled eggs under her nose in hopes that somehow that'd wake her up. She took a few shallow breaths through her nose and one deep breath before her eyes fluttered open.

She groggily sat up and looked down to the eggs before picking one up and eating it. She gave off a little "Mmm" and continued eating. '_Thank you master...'_ She said tiredly, her speech a bit slurred from sleep. I would have let the calling me master slide if I had really paid attention to it. What I _was _paying attention to was the fact that she was talking to me and her aura sensors weren't "active." I stared at the limp organs on the side of her head, more than a little disbelievingly. She looked up from her food to me, confusion evident on her face. '_What's wrong mas- mister?' _She asked, catching herself this time.

"Your aura sensors... Why aren't they up?" I asked, my mind half on what I was saying and half on something else I had only just realized: I hadn't told her my name yet.

'_Hm?' _She asked before lifting the two organs up with her paws. '_You mean these things?' _I answered in the affirmative with a nod. '_Well, I only needed to make a connection to you so I could talk with you. I don't need them to talk with you right now, the connection's already been made.'_ She explained for me. I mumbled something and got back to eating. After breakfast, I packed everything back up and got ready to leave. Once everything was back where it belonged, I looked down to the Riolu. The way she was fiddling with her paws and standing a little akwardly made it clear that she was both afraid of what was about to happen and hopeful about it, even though she didn't know what it was. I looked her over a bit, pretending to be far more critical than I really was. I had already made my decision about her last night when I pulled her into the sleeping bag with me.

"All right, come along. If you're gonna be with me, we need to head to Castelia so I can get a ball for you." I said as if it were the most meaningless thing in the world.

Evidently the Riolu thought otherwise.

'_Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!' _She said, far too quickly for me to keep up with as she jumped into my arms and gave me the best hug she could. After several seconds of these celebrations, she stopped and looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. '_Wait... Why do we have to go to Castelia? There's a human town just over there.' _She said, pointing over to the east where Nacrene city lay.

"Well, I _could _just go there and buy a ball, but I wouldn't be able to use it." I said and got an unspoken question of 'why' in response. I pulled out my old trainer card from my pocket and held it up for her to see. "Even though I used to be a trainer, this old thing expired about eight years ago. I would need to go to Castelia anyway to get it renewed." I explained to the little Riolu. She reached out and touched the card right under where name was and squinted at it, seeming very concentrated on the little black letters.

'"_Aaron Tarkeil?" That's your name?'_ The Riolu said as she turned back to me. I was surprised once more by her capabilities; not only could she use an advanced aura technique that most trained Lucario couldn't, she could _read_ aswell!

"Well now, aren't you full of surprises? Anywho, yes, that's my name. Do you happen to have a name?" I asked the little Riolu still in my arms. She looked down and shook her head 'no' lightly. "Well, would you like me to give you one?" She seemed quite pleased at that, nodding her head at an almost dizzying rate as I set her down. So as I was packing up camp, I thought about what might be a good name for her.

I was never good at picking names and, since I never thought I would be a trainer again, I never put any time to practicing it. A few minutes after we had finished packing (rolling up the sleeping bag, putting out the fire and making sure I had my sword) and had started walking towards Nacrene, I had an idea. "Got it." I said as I snapped my fingers and turned towars the Riolu, who had also stopped. "What do you think of 'Sapphire?'" I asked her. She seemed to like it, as soon as I had said it she was already in my arms, giving me one of her little hugs._  
_

'_I love it. Thank you Aaron.' _She said, seeming that now she knew my name, she could manage to keep from calling me her master.

"Glad you like it." I said as I put her on my shoulders and continued to walk towards Nacrene. For the first time in quite a while, I was happy. I had two things I hadn't had in a very long time; a destination and a friend.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~


	3. The enemy

**Anything in quotes is either someone speaking, quoting something, or reading something.**

**Anything in like ****_'_**_this' _**is something to do with the mind, be it someone's thoughts, telepathy or dreams.**

**Let us begin!**

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

I squinted as some of the newborn light found its way into my eyes. It was just after dawn and we were about half way across the Skyarrow bridge, connecting Nacrene to Castelia from across the river. It had been a couple of days since I had met Sapphire and we were heading to Castelia city to get my license renewed, so she would be safe in case we ever met someone who would try to capture her.

'_Aaron, can you help me up?' _The Riolu in question asked as she tried desperately, and failed, to climb up onto the railing. I nodded and helped her up so she was standing on the concrete rail. _'Wow...'_ She said, her mental voice filled with wonder as she looked out to the water as it reflected thousands of colors from the rising sun.

"Wow indeed..." I confirmed, a similar wonder filling my voice. For some reason it simply didn't matter that I might have seen a sight like this a thousand times, it just didn't seem to get old. Before either of us knew it, five minutes had gone by. And five turned to ten, ten to twenty and so on. Finally, after thirty whole minutes of watching the glittering river, I roused myself back to my senses and we continued on. For the rest of the walk to Castelia's Department of league affairs office, I felt like I had forgotten that there was a cold war between gods raging across the world, yet just out of sight.

It was a good feeling.

~~~~~~X~~~~~~

'_Wow! How are they so tall?'_ Sapphire exclaimed when we stepped off of the Skyarrow bridge and caught sight of just how tall the skyscrapers that Castelia was known for were. I just chuckled at her amazement, gathered her back up onto my shoulder, and walked the remaining distance to the DLA office. Since it was one of the buildings facing the docks, it wasn't that long of a walk.

If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought I was at the wrong place. Next to the towering skyscrapers, the small two-story building looked almost painfully out-of-place. I walked through the automatic glass doors, but almost immediately stopped in my tracks. I felt something that I dreaded, something I had miraculously avoided for ten years.

I felt a disciple of Arceus.

And he was close.

I did a quick sweep of the room and saw that, barring me and the woman manning the desk, there was no one in here. I relaxed approximately three hairs on the back of my neck when I realized that she wasn't the disciple.

'_Aaron, is something wrong?' _Sapphire asked concernedly, and with a small twinge of fear in her own voice. I shook my head, forced myself to calm down when I realized that it was affecting Sapphire, and walked a bit stiffly to the desk. When she noticed me, her face practically lit up as bright as Castelia itself.

"Good morning and welcome the department of league affairs, how may I help you?" She greeted me in a surprisingly genuine tone that radiated peppiness. I took out my old trainer card and set it down on the desk between us.

"I would like my trainer card renewed Ma'am."

"Certainly, this will take just a few minutes Mr..." She glanced down at my card, then back to me. "Tarkeil. Please take a seat while you wait."

I gave her my thanks, sat down on one of the empty couches against the wall and tried to calm myself. Clearly this was a very slow day for the DLA, if the amount of couches in the lobby was any indication. I finally succeeded in calming myself when I remembered the words of one of my mentors during my training:

_"Disciples of Arceus aren't exactly like you or I; they can't sense other disciples immediately, it takes time them a few minutes to get a fix on ya'. But if they do find you, don't underestimate them for a second. Even though they're basically grunts and can't do much on their own, they're arrogant, unpredictable, and have no fear of death, a very dangerous combination."_

Thankfully, only a few minutes later I was called back up to receive my renewed trainer card. I paid for it, gave the woman my thanks and left for the building with Sapphire still on my shoulder. I could have sworn I felt someone watching me when I left, but I didn't see anyone other than the woman (who had gotten back to her computer) when I looked back though.

Against my better judgement, I shrugged the feeling off and headed out, bound for the Castelia shopping district to resupply.

~~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~~~

About two hours and some drainage of my wallet later, I sat next to Sapphire on one of the sandy benches on route 4, newly purchased poke-ball in hand. It was pretty much identical to a standard poke-ball aesthetically, save for a small loop on the top half with a short length of string through it. Perfect size for a small pendant or necklace.

I looked to my side and saw Sapphire fiddling with her paws nervously, obviously preparing herself for what was about to happen.

"Are you ready?" I asked her, trying to make my voice soothing to keep the little Riolu calm.

'_Y-yeah, do it.' _She said, sounding nervous but eager to get this over with. I nodded and tapped the ball against her shoulder. The device snapped open in my hand and activated with a flash of light just under blinding, sucking Sapphire into it and activating the capture mechanism.

The ball snapped closed and began to shake lightly in my hand.

After the third shake, the ball went still and a victorious sounding ding emanated from the ball. '_Not much of a victory.'_ I thought as I let Sapphire out of the ball and back onto the bench. '_On second thought, maybe I should have left her in the ball...'_ I thought as Sapphire began to stumble about on the bench.

"Are you OK?" I asked her, concerned that the ball may have done more to her than I thought.

_'Y-yeah, just dizzy. Gimme a minute.' _She said as she leaned against the bench's back rest. _'So,' _She asked after a few minutes _'When are we heading out?' _She asked a bit excitedly.

"Soon, but first, close your eyes." I said, the last words feeling heavy and foreign as they left my mouth. I realized that they were the first real commands I'd given to anyone in ten years. It didn't feel right and left an odd taste in my mouth., so I decided to only give commands sparingly. Sapphire complied and closed her eyes. I took the minimized pokeball and gently draped the string over and around her head. "Okay, you can open your eyes." She opened her eyes and immediately pawed at the ball in an attempt to hold it.

'_Shouldn't you hold onto this, Aaron?' _She asked with the same innocence and curiosity that had been practically exclusive to her over those first few days.

I shook my head. "No, I want you to hold onto your ball so you know that you can leave whenever you like, if you want to. I will not hold or pull any strings in this relationship of ours, you are free to choose what you want to do. If you want to smash the ball and leave now, you can." I explain in an admittedly stiff tone as I got up and helped Sapphire onto my shoulder, a spot that she had come to like quite a bit.

_'My own choice? Hmm... Then I choose to stay with you, Aaron!'_ Sapphire exclaimed happily as she brought my head into a hug with her little arms. I was so surprised by just how much she had bonded with me over the few days that we had known each other, I very nearly fell over. I recovered and continued walking on into the desert to the north of Castelia.

A good half hour passed before I realized that I since I had completed my "goal" of renewing my trainer card and registering Sapphire as my pokemon, I had already gotten back into my "wandering" way of thinking. A dangerous way of thinking when in a desert. I needed a new destination if I wanted to get out of this desert in any decent amount of time. I decided to ask Sapphire where she wanted to go, and she decided that we head to Nimbasa city and its "wheel of light," as she called the ferris wheel there._  
_

The desert was deceptively long and wide, so we walked (or, more accurately, I walked with Sapphire on my shoulder) seven hours or so of day light that we had left before the night came. We looked around a bit before settling on a spot and making camp in the last rays of the dying sunlight. Half an hour and two cans of soup later, Sapphire and I were gazing up at the stars from inside the sleeping bag. Or, at least I was, due to Sapphire being deeper in the bag and likely already asleep.

I felt my eyes growing heavy, so I submitted myself to sleep's alluring darkness.

~~~~~~X~~~~~~

_'Awaken disciple... awaken...'_

_I grunted as I tried to swat whatever was trying to get me to wake up away, but fate seemed to have other plans as I felt myself wake up, whether I liked it or not. When my eyes had opened properly, I saw that I wasn't in the desert anymore, but rather in a cave with very familiar red rocks. I stood up and looked around, confirming my suspicions._

_I was in the distortion world again._

_A quick inspection of my surroundings revealed that I was in a closed off cavern, no more than 10 by 10 feet. I wasn't alone in the "cave," I saw a woman standing near the rear wall. If I had to describe her in one word: Plain. She was the kind of woman who would disappear in a crowd in an instant._

_'You are awake, disciple. Good,' I heard in my mind. It didn't take much to deduce that this "woman" was who was talking to me and who (more like what) she was. She wasn't an actual woman, she was more of an AI used to keep us disciples in touch with each other and Giratina. She did this by "liking our souls," or so she calls it. This also gives her quite a bit of access to our minds._

_'Giratina would have been here, but he was preoccupied with Dialga and Palkia, so I am here to assign you your mission.' My interest piqued when she mentioned a mission. Since us disciples were more or less the foot soldiers of gods, we are assigned missions of varying importance from time to time. When we don't have missions, we are left to our own devices (in my case, wandering) until our next mission. This was all well and good, except for one thing._

_This was my first mission._

_'Giratina is aware that this is your first mission, disciple. But he has faith in you. Do you choose to accept your mission?' She explained in her monotone voice._

_"I don't know... I suppose if Giratina believes in me, I should try. I accept." I accepted a little hesitantly. The woman bowed and continued explaining with her telepathy._

_'Good. We have recently learned of some ruins that Giratina and his advisers believe may help us in our campaign against Arceus. Your mission is to go to the Sinnoh town of Snowpoint and investigate these ruins.' I mentally groaned when she mentioned Sinnoh. While not a total theocracy, its government was heavily influenced by the church of Arceus, leading it to be a rather dangerous place for us "heretics."_

_'Be advised; the distortion world has been rather unstable as of late due to various accounts of Dialga and Palkia interfering, leading some other disciples unable to use it as a gate. It should be stable enough for you to make it to Sinnoh so long as you leave within the next 72 hours. After that, I can guarantee nothing. It is recommended that you bring your companion with you, for-'_

_Suddenly, the small room was bathed in a red light as an alarm of sorts sounded from who knows where and the AI woman adopted a shocked expression._

_'Alert! Hostile disciple detected approaching your body! Allegiance: Arceus. You must awaken immediately and meet the threat or run!' The woman practically yelled into my mind._

_Before I could even begin to process what I had just been told, I felt my limbs and eyes begin to grow heavier by the second, soon they felt like lead had replaced my blood. I collapsed, and fell back into darkness._

~~~~~X~~~~~

I groaned about in my sleeping bag for a few minutes before I began to remember what had happened in my dream; my mission and my warning. My eyes snapped open as I scrambled up to try and find my sword, nearly forgetting that I was in a sleeping bag and completely forgetting that someone else was in it as well. I needed to get ready for the disciple of Arceus. I was so scared and, in a very odd way, excited about the fact that I would have to fight for my life in a few short minutes, that I would have forgotten about Sapphire if she hadn't jumped up and slapped me.

_'Aaron! Calm down, your aura's all over the place! Now,' _She said as she jumped back down to the desert floor. _'What's going on that's got you so riled up?' _She asked in an almost maternal tone. I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. She needed to be safe.

"Someone's coming and he's more than likely going to try to kill me. Listen Sapphire, you need to run while I deal with him. Go and hide while I distract him." With those few words, I could see tears gathering in the little Riolu's eyes. But she blinked them away and shook her head defiantly.

_'No! I won't leave my trainer to die! I can fight!' _She said just as defiantly. She seemed dead set on protecting me, even though it meant fighting someone or something that she knew nothing about. Once again, I was at a loss for words due to just how much she had already bonded with me. Before I could say anything else, there was an explosion of sand about 5 meters away from us. I didn't even need to look over to see who it was, I could already feel him.

"Listen Sapphire, you need to leave now while I distract him!" I said, just short of shouting at Sapphire. She was staring right at the cloud of sand and dust, face drawn back into an expression of horror as she was undoubtedly picking up on gods knows what kind of malice in the disciple's aura. All of a sudden, everything went quiet for a second that felt like an eternity. A huge gust of wind blew away the dust and revealed an abomination that not even the most devout follower of Arceus would call "holy."

It was (emphasis on was) a man, but his body was just... _wrong._ His jaw was slack, his legs had become reverse jointed, and his arms were elongated so much that his hands were at his shins. But what was more attention drawing was what was _in _his hands; two golden axes were gripped tightly in his long fingers. The abomination looked from me, to Sapphire, then to me again. And I swore, I saw it grin as much as it could with its slack jaw before it spoke in a horrible voice.

"**No, no, no... Don't make her leave on my account, she can join in on our little 'fun'... _Heretic_.**" It said, spitting out the last word as if it left a horrible taste in its mouth.

More than likely, it did.

Before I could react, the abomination screeched some battle cry and dashed straight at Sapphire, who was still staring horrified at the creature. Before I even knew what I was doing, I grabbed my sword and put myself in between it and Sapphire. I quickly formed a blob of antimatter about the size of a baseball in one hand While I gripped my sword in the other. Acting on instinct and adrenaline, I threw the blob of antimatter at the creature harder than I've ever thrown anything in my life.

A piercing screech of pain hit me as the ball hit the abomination square in its eyes, the antimatter starting to eat its way through the skin. For a moment, I began to think that I may have killed it, the thought reassured as the bone-chilling screams of pain lasted several more seconds. But suddenly, a deep, throaty noise came from the abomination as it reached up and grabbed what was left of the blob and threw it down into the cold sand. I realized that the noise was the abomination laughing at me.

**"You really thought that would kill me? One of Arceus' chosen disciples and loyal soldiers? Ha! Pray to whatever vile god you have sold your soul to for mercy, for mine has none to spare on heretics like you!"** The disciple yelled as he got into a combat stance, lifting his golden axes above his head. I readied my sword in both hands, getting ready to fight this monster head on.

He apparently had other plans.

Before I could blink, the disciple vanished from where he was. I looked around, but didn't see him until it was too late. He reappeared directly in front of me, his slack-jawed face staring straight into mine. He grabbed one of my ankles and, with what seemed to be no effort on his part, threw me up into the air. Time seemed to slow down as I felt weightless in the air and saw his stretched face curve into a smile right before he slammed into my side with the flats of his axes, sending me flying across the surface of the sand before crashing into the ground. My mind was reeling in a torrent of pain as I hit the ground, almost unable to register the telepathic shout of _'Aaron!'_ from Sapphire.

My eyes were so screwed up and blurry from the pain and sand that undoubtedly got into them, I barely saw the towering mass of the disciple as he stood over me. I could feel his booming voice in my bones, but everything he said just turned into mumbles. I couldn't even move, the pain was so intense. I just wanted to lay down and die.

Just before my eyes closed fully, I saw a faint blue blob jump up to about the disciple's shoulder level, An even fainter, white blob accompanying it. Somehow I managed to regain enough of my sight and wits just in time to see Sapphire slam a force palm into the disciple's temple, sending him flying (while nowhere near as far as I was sent) a surprisingly far ways.

_'Aaron!'_ Sapphire exclaimed as she ran down to me and tried to help me up back to my feet. Why didn't she get it? Why didn't she see that she had to leave now if she wanted to live?

"No Sapphire, run while you can. Don't be dragged down just-" I managed to croak out before a small, yet strong, paw slapped me across the face, shutting me up rather effectively.

_'No! How many times do I have to say it? I won't leave you to die! Now get up!'_ Sapphire said, tears and fear staining her face. It hit me right then, that she cared about me so much that she would rather die by my side than leave me and live. Sure, I noticed that she cared for me before, but I didn't think it was like this.

Here I was, nearly dying, and she will still stand by me to the death. That thought, that bond, sparked a fire in me that gave me the energy to get back up and pick up my sword. Sure I may have been beaten all to hell, but if Sapphire is willing to stand by my side till the death, then I shall stand by hers!

That Disciple made his last mistake when he decided to try to hurt Sapphire, and I sure as hell am gonna make sure he knows that! I took off like a bullet towards to splayed form of the disciple, sword gripped tight in one hand and antimatter already accumulating in the other with Sapphire close behind.

I could already hear his horrible laugh as I got closer with every step. He began to say something, but no matter how bone chilling, how blood freezing and deformed his body and voice was, I wouldn't stop, I wouldn't listen. He wasn't even paying attention to us, he was just staring at the stars.

I brought my sword down hard on his left arm, eliciting a blood curdling scream of pain as the blade cut through the flesh and bone, severing his arm just above the elbow. I forced a hand full of antimatter into his already scarred eyes, further drawing out the harrowing scream of pain. He kicked around and flailed his one good arm and one stump as he screamed, but I was practically on autopilot at this point, his screams only making me force more antimatter into his, now exposed, skull.

_'Aaron!' _I heard from Sapphire, I looked to my right and saw that she was only barely dodging the disciple's blind slashes with his one remaining axe. That broke something in me even further. I didn't care if he was flailing around blindly, if he was in the worst pain imaginable, if he didn't even know what he was doing anymore. He was trying to hurt Sapphire, and I wanted him dead. No, more than dead.

I wanted him fucking erased from reality.

And I was gonna do it.

I brought sword down again, this time severing the disciple's right arm, leaving him with nothing more to flail than two bloody stumps. I began to stab him in the chest repeatedly, everything beyond my arm and his bloody chest seeming to just fade away. I began to scream incoherently as the twitching mass that used to be the disciple grew colder and colder with every passing second. I stopped long after the disciple had grown still and cold.

I got up from the corpse, feeling drained and tired. I looked down to what was left of the disciple and saw that he was indeed dead, assuming that missing a good part of your skull and a bit of your brain was lethal. Deciding to let the sand bury him, I took Sapphire's little hand in mine, shuffled my way back to camp, and just fell over into the sand, not even bothering to try to land on the sleeping bag. Somehow, I managed to stay awake. I twisted myself into a sitting position and looked up to Sapphire, who was sitting on the other side of the smoldering remains of the campfire from last night.

"Go on," I said in a tired voice. "Ask your questions. I know you have 'em."

_'W-what did he mean when he called you a heretic? And why did he try to k-kill you?' _She asked me, sounding like she had some trouble with the last words.

"He meant that I was an enemy of his god... And more than likely, an enemy of yours." I said, knowing that Lucario and Riolu were two relatively spiritual pokemon. "I am a disciple of Giratina, an agent and foot soldier of a god that only desires the freedom for all sentient beings. Me and my fellow disciples are enemies of Arceus not for the biblical reasons you might have learned, but because he is a corrupting tyrant that sees everything as his property, and thus despises anyone else who hold power, no matter how small. As for why he tried to kill me, it was because he sensed me back at the DLA office in Castelia and saw me as an enemy. Nothing more, nothing less."

A heavy silence hung over the camp for several minutes before I decided to break it. "I assume you want to leave now. Go on; I won't stop you."

I stared at the smoldering remains of the campfire, expecting to hear a shattering sound and a crackle of electricity, but the sounds didn't come. Instead, Sapphire walked over across the sand and took my hanging head into a hug, rocking it gently to and fro.

_'Why would I leave you when you need me the most? No one can go through that alone and stay sane.' _She said sagely.

"Heh, you're one to talk; you just went through the same thing _and _learned that your friend has a job that would make quite a few people call him demon." I chuckled as I leaned into her embrace a bit more.

_'Exactly my point; we need each other to get through this. That's what friends are for, right?_'

"Indeed they are." I said, letting the words hang in the silence that followed as we quietly embraced. A few minutes later, I scooted over to the sleeping bag and flopped down on top of it, breaking the embrace in the process. "Come on, let's get to bed. We'll need our energy for the next few days."

And so, Sapphire laid down on my chest, falling asleep pretty much instantly. Feeling my limbs grow heavy already, I brushed her side a few times before I too succumbed fell asleep.

My dreams that night were, surprisingly, not nightmares of how the battle might have gone wrong, or of the disciple's destroyed and lifeless face, but it was a happy dream. A dream that I wish to make reality.

I didn't have to wander anymore. Sapphire and I were living in my old house again, as ordinary people. I wanted to make this dream real.

I wanted to be normal again.

~~~~~~X~~~~~

**No, I'm not dead, just lazy.**

**Thanks for reading this chapter. Please leave a review, it really does help motivate me.**


	4. The mission

**QUICK PSA: I have a habit of editing my stories/chapters within a few hours after I publish them, so if you read the last chapter as soon as you got the email, go check it out again. Or at least check the ending, I added some stuff. Anyway, enjoy!**

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

"Ready Sapphire?"

_'Are you sure this is a good idea, Aaron?'_

"Yes, I am. Don't worry about falling, I'll catch you."

_'OK...'_

"Alright... One... Two... Three!" I said as I threw Sapphire up about twenty feet into the desert air.

_'AAAAAAAAAHHH!' _She yelled in what sounded like a clear mix of fright and exhilaration as she quickly reached the apex of her little flight. Once she reached said apex, Sapphire did a little twirl, much like a Kirlia's, before she started to fall back down to me. True to my word, I caught her in my arms before gravity could do her any harm.

"Have fun?" I asked, getting a weak nod in reply. I set her down on the ground, much to her apparent approval, and clasped my hands together. "So, any buildings nearby?"

She nodded and pointed to the northeast with one of her furred arms. _'Yeah, there was a few buildings about a mile that way... I didn't see any humans there though.'_

"Alright, let's going, time's a-wasting'!" And so, we set off across the scorching sand for one of the numerous abandoned housing projects that dotted the desert landscape. However, five minutes into the twenty some minute walk, I noticed that Sapphire had slowed from her usual energetic pace, and adopted a much more slow and deliberate one, as if she was deep in thought. Barely a minute after that, she stopped entirely. I looked to her and only got to notice just how... _blankly _she was staring at me before her telepathic voice rang out in my head.

_'We're not going to the wheel of light anymore, are we?'_ She asked sadly, yet also as though she already knew the answer.

"What makes you say that?" I asked, not able to bring myself to lie to her.

_'Last night, you told me that we would need our energy over the next few days... and I imagine that Giratina would want you to do something every once in a while, right?' _She explained, her telepathic voice monotone. I was shocked at just how fast she had managed to put all the pieces together, it had only been half an hour since we had woken up! I sighed, knelt down next to her, and put my hand on her shoulder. No point in lying to her.

"You're right Sapphire, Giratina does want me to do something. Right before we were attacked by the disciple last night," I saw a shiver run through Sapphire as I mentioned the disciple. No doubt the mentioning of it brought back bad memories from the night before. "I was given a mission by Giratina to check out some ruins in a Sinnoh town called "Snowpoint." But I promise you that as soon as this mission is over, we'll head straight for the wheel of light and you can ride it as many times as you like." I said in a determined voice. Although she didn't outwardly look sad, I could _feel _her mood turning around and improving.

_'Okay, but I'll hold you to that Aaron!' _Sapphire said, her energetic and _Sapphire-like _air having returned. Feeling happy that she was happy again, I continued on my way to the buildings. Eight or so minutes of walking later, we crested a particularly tall dune and I got my first look at the buildings that Sapphire had spotted. Simply put; they were run down houses, a remnant of a failed attempt to extend civilization into the desert. An unnecessary attempt, considering that Nimbasa was founded only a few years after the construction zones were declared closed, if memory serves. They were only about two hundred yards from the dune where we stood, only about five minute's walk. We continued on, going a bit faster than earlier, now that it was apparent that we were in the home stretch.

_'Wait,' _Sapphire, who was currently riding on my shoulder, asked after as we neared one the buildings. _'If we have to go to Sinnoh, why are we going to some random house in the desert, and not back to Castelia, the place with BOATS?'_

"Because, Sapphire, I have a bit of a perk for being a disciple of Giratina." I said as I made my way around around to the front of the house and was quite pleased to see that it still had an intact door in its frame. I strode up to it and began to feel all about its surface with my hands, muttering "yes, this'll do just fine."

While this happened, Sapphire jumped down from my shoulder and began to inspect the door at her own rate. She eventually gave up, looked up to me, and shrugged. _'I give up, what is your perk?'_ She asked curiously.

For some reason, I wanted to do this as dramatically as possible. So, I put my hands onto the door and begun to "link" it to the distortion world. I thought of my destination; the academy where I was trained. Due to our low numbers of recruits and resources, the disciples of Giratina have to use everything we have as many times as we can. Because of this, the academy wasn't just an academy, it was our main headquarters and resource bank. And since we were going to a place with "snow" actually in its name, I thought we would like some coats. For a few seconds, it felt like a small part of me was flowing into the door until a barely visible purple light shined around its edges, signifying that it had been activated as a gate. I stepped back and chuckled as I got ready to fling the door open.

"My perk is..." I paused for effect. "_A_ door_ to anywhere._" As the last words left my mouth, I flung open the door, revealing not a living room or foyer that hadn't been used in decades, but instead a large building sitting atop a plain of red rock, framed by the purple void of the distortion world. I took a few self-satisfied steps through the door, but stopped when I noticed that Sapphire hadn't followed me in. I turned around and saw that she was hiding just behind one of the door frame's sides, shaking rather badly. I walked back to her and put my hand on her shoulder to calm her, but got grappled into an unexpected hug.

_'P-please... d-don't make me go in there alone, it's scary...'_ Her voice was trembling, she sounded like she was about to break down and cry, and I could even hear some actual whimpers coming from her. Something was seriously bothering her, that much was _very _clear. I comforted her as best I could for a few minutes before I picked her up and held like a newborn child.

"There we go, now you won't have to go in there alone at all. Just close your eyes and pretend we're at camp, sleeping under the stars. Is that better Sapphire?" I asked her after she had calmed down a bit. She nodded, but spoke no words as she burrowed her way a bit deeper into my arms. I walked back through the portal, but as soon as I crossed its threshold, I felt her begin to shake again. I pulled her closer to me and began to stroke her side as I walked to the quartermaster's area in the academy.

A few minutes later, I stood in front of the quartermaster with a much calmer Sapphire in my arms. The quartermaster was one of the oldest members of the disciples still around, him having served Giratina for a few centuries. He cast a glance towards Sapphire, but didn't mention her or her state.

"Aaron." He said simply with a customary nod of greeting.

"Quartermaster." I replied with the same nod.

"What brings you here? You've been pretty set up till now with sword of yours I gave you ten years ago. What do you need?" The quartermaster said, his old age making him a quick and to the point kind of man.

"I've been assigned a mission to the town of Snowpoint in Sinnoh. Got any spare coats? I've never been there, but the name's kind of foreboding, so I figured it'd be a good idea to come here first."

"Aye, I've got some coats. And you were right to come here; I've been to Snowpoint a few times. Gets as cold as Death's touch there in the winter and doesn't improve much in the summer." The quartermaster said with another of his nods before going off to find the coats. A few minutes later he returned with a rather large and thick dark green parka that I could only guess was for me, and a smaller woolen jacket that must have been for Sapphire. He also carried with him a small metal cylinder that had a crank affixed to one side. He set the coats and the cylinder down on the table in between, allowing me to get a better look at the cylinder. I figure out what it is and look up to the quartermaster.

"A heater? Why?" I asked the quartermaster, who was already returning to his regular business.

"Snowpoint's dangerously cold. A jacket will only get you so far, and what little wood isn't frozen is wet and crap for making fires. Take the heater, boy. It might save your life."

Heading the old man's advice, I grabbed the heater and put into my bag before I picked up the jackets. I thanked the quartermaster and left for the portal, coats over my shoulder and Sapphire in my hand. When we arrived at the portal, the door wasn't open anymore. I set Sapphire down in an attempt to get her to put on her jacket while I put on my own, but she immediately latched onto my leg and wouldn't let go.

"Come on Sapphire. I know you don't like it here, but you have to put on your coat or you'll freeze when we get to Snowpoint!" I said quietly, yet forcefully. I tried to convince her, but it wasn't until I mentioned several minutes later that the sooner she let go and put her coat, the sooner she'd be out of the distortion world did she let go. She quickly unlatched herself and got the coat on, just in time to leap into my arms right after I had finished getting my own coat on. Holding Sapphire with one hand, I reached over and linked the door to the town of Snowpoint. Since I didn't have a clear target, I could only hope we would end up near the ruins.

I opened the door and was shocked as to just how much snow there was on the other side portal. There was easily 6-8 inches of snow out there! I steeled myself and jumped out of the door with Sapphire in my hands. The door closed behind us as I severed the link. Sapphire jumped down to the ground and shook herself like a wet Lillipup, seeming to be her old self again now that we were out of the distortion world.

_'I don't like it in there. Its aura was like yours, but the bad stuff was much stronger.'_ She explained, answering my question before I even asked it. She wrinkled her nose as if a particularly bad smell just hit her. _'Too__ ghostly to.' _She added after a few moments.

I shrugged and rubbed her head. "It's good to have you back to normal, being scared stiff doesn't fit you too well." I said jokingly. Thankfully, we landed in an area _not_ currently engaged in a snowstorm and the air was relatively clear. I looked around a bit and spotted the tell-tale red roof of a pokemon center in the distance to the north. "Come on, we've got a job to do." I said as we began to march towards Snowpoint's pokemon center.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

An hour and a half of surprisingly slow walking in the snow, direction asking, and some more walking in the snow, Sapphire and I stood on the steps of the Snowpoint ruins getting ready to delve into it.

"You ready Sapphire?" I asked her as I checked my gear. Everything was in order; my sword was on my belt and my bag was on my back. She jumped up onto my shoulder and did a flex that might have worked with other Riolu, but looked a bit out-of-place with her.

_'Yeah! Let's do this!'_ She replied excitedly from my shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, we're just here to check out the ruins." I chuckled in response to her attempt at bravado. That deflated her a bit. Back to normal, it seems. We entered the decrepit ruins and were surprised to find that it was empty for the most part. The only signs of life we found were a few nests of of the Zubat line, who content to continue sleeping, and a few Geodudes. It took us a few hours to navigate the ruins, what with the floor being frozen in many places, and all the rubble, but when we got to the bottom floor, we found a huge atrium wide and tall enough to have a house in it. There were only two things inside of it

A statue of a humanoid creature with no discernible head sitting in a huge chair, and a fence of sorts in between us and the statue for a few yards, but stopped quite a bit short of reaching the walls on either side.

"Wow... this might be what we're looking for, Sapphire!" I told her excitedly. I hadn't been here long, but I certainly preferred the varied climate of Unova to the constantly frozen state of Snowpoint. Sapphire was also marveling at what was in the atrium, but she was focusing more on the fence than anything else. She jumped down from my shoulder and ran the remaining distance to it, the two aura sensing organs on her head activating on her way. She stopped in front of the object and closed her eyes as she felt it.

_'It's so... old...' _She said, sounding a bit puzzled. I was too, considering she was picking up aura from a stone fence, when it's usually only found in living things. I knelt next to her to get a better look at it, and realized that it wasn't a fence, but a rather ancient looking tablet.

"Something wrong, Sapphire? What is this thing?" I asked, hoping that her sixth sense could help identify what it it. Her aura sensors deactivated and just looked up to me, looking thoroughly exasperated as she shook her head.

_'I don't know. It's clearly not alive, yet it's giving off aura. A very, very, very old aura. This whole room gave off something similar, but it's much more concentrated here and at that statue.' _She said, sounding just as puzzled as I was as she showed her surprising intelligence. She went back to examining it, closing her eyes once again as she focused on the tablet. I sat down against the tablet and nearly dozed off. Suddenly, a telepathic scream from Sapphire had me up in an instant.

I looked over to her and saw green... tentacle things... leaking out of the tablet and onto Sapphire's arm, quickly wrapping further around her arm. Acting quickly, I unsheathed my sword and brought it down on the tentacles, but it did nothing, my sword just phased right through them! Too panicked to think properly, I looked to Sapphire with a dumb and helpless gaze. She was crying and trembling. She looked me in the eye and said one word.

_'Run.'_

As soon as her word entered my head, more of the tentacles shot out of the tablet and completely encased her.

"NO!" I said as I moved to try and remove them. But before I could do that, I saw something, I saw a glow emanate from Sapphire. My eyes widened as I realized what it was. As much as I hated myself for leaving her, I turned tail and ran behind the cover of one of the nearby boulders.

It was the glow of evolution.

And evolution is violent.

I peered out from behind my boulder so I could witness Sapphire's evolution. Her transformation. They glow quickly spread throughout her small frame and encompassed her entirely. It then began to slowly grow outwards until it was sphere of light. It began to contract and expand until it settled on a shape of a sphere that was about twice as large as the original. _'And now for the violent part.' _I thought to myself. A beam of light suddenly shot out of the sphere, followed by another, and another and so on until it was blinding. Suddenly, all the lights died out, save for the sphere.

All was quiet, all was till for a moment that lasted an eternity. The calm before the storm. I took that as my cue to quickly duck back behind the cover of the boulder. Without warning, there was an explosion of released energy, blinding light shined and hurricane force winds kicked up that lasted several seconds. Once things had calmed back down, I got out from behind the boulder and saw just what had happened.

All the dust and loose rocks/ice smaller than the boulder I had taken shelter behind were blown clear to the walls of the room, leaving the ancient rock floor naked, but the statue and tablet didn't look like they had been touched at all.

Standing in Sapphire's place was no longer the Riolu I had come to know and care for, but instead an especially tall Lucario of 4' 3" stood in her place. But she didn't turn to me. She didn't move. She didn't do anything other than just stand there.

"S-Sapphire?" I asked, worried about her well-being and also scared of what might of happened to her. She didn't respond for a few minutes.

_**'Disciple of the tormented god, be at ease, your companion is unharmed. I am simply using her body as a... translator, let us say.'** _A chorus of voices all smashed into one said in my head. But at the top of all those voices, as if at the top of a mountaintop, was a deeper version of Sapphire's. Her new voice, I realized.

"W-who are you?!" I demanded as I drew my sword.

**_'Calm yourself, disciple. I mean no harm to you our your companion. And put away your sword; I will answer your questions, but not to a drawn__ bla__de.' _**The thing that was inside Sapphire said. I decided to trust it for now, so I sheathed my sword. I don't want to provoke it, whoever or whatever it is, it could probably do some serious damage to Sapphire, and I will not allow that to happen because of me.**_'Good, let us continue _****_like civilized people. As for who I_**_** am,'** _It turned Sapphire's body around, revealing her eyes to be alight by the same green energy of the tentacles. **_'I am Regigas, the king, and the last, of the world builders.'_**

"W-what's so special about this place, and why did this tablet attack Sapphire?" I asked, my voice raising a bit with the last words of the sentence.

Regigas nodded Sapphire's head and waved one of her paws over the tablet, revealing the lost text. **_'This place is my home, my throne room, my bunker, and my tomb. As for this tablet, it did not attack her per-say, but instead, it forced her to mature to the point that her body could handle my presence without dying. If it did it right, she should only need rest. The tablet and this statue hold my soul, allowing me to live on in here. It also holds the story of my race's last days, and of our betrayal. Would like to hear it?'_**The ancient king asked. Not really knowing what to do, I nodded silently. Regigas nodded and began to read from the tablet.

**_'Long ago, Arceus created the world, yet he could not shape it, so he created the Regi, the world builders. He gave the Regi a simple order; to make the world beautiful. And that they did. Over thousands of years, the Regi towed continents, filled in the oceans, lit the stars, planted great forests, built the towering mountains, and flattened the great plains of the world. They finished sculpting the world, but it still needed them as its caretakers. And so, the Regi lived in prosperous peace for tens of thousands of years, under the rule of Arceus and their king, Regigas, meaning king builder, as they gently cared for the land they had sculpted over the millenia whenever it was necessary._****_  
_**

**_'But Arceus, jealous of the Regi's affinity with the land, wished to have such power only for himself. So he set about plotting the destruction of the Regi. But he could not destroy them yet, for the the land was not yet stable, and would surely collapse without them. As for the Regi, with their great knowledge of the land, they had already predicted the day of the land's stabilization, and that day was to be celebrated all throughout their vast kingdom in a great festival known as "Koomdyahm." That day was still a thousand years away though, so the Regi continued to work with the land until the day came._**

**_'Finally, Koomdyahm came, and all the Regi throughout the, now stable, world celebrated, their millenia long work finally complete. But it was also a day of cataclysm for the Regi, as Arceus soon descended upon them to begin his genocide, having created three dragons to assist him; One of time, one of space, and one of antimatter. But the third dragon refused to slaughter the Regi when he was ordered to, and was banished to the distortion world for his crime. But even without the third dragon, Arceus was able to slaughter the Regi and raise their great kingdom to the ground, for the Regi had never known war, and had no armies._**

**_'The builder king managed to avoid falling like the rest of his kind. He waited for three months for the dragons to leave for the holy mount coronet and depart the, now empty, world. During this time, he channeled his rage from losing his entire kingdom into a design that could be used to lay siege to the very heavens themselves. Now alone in the world that his ancestors had shaped over the millenia, Regigas set out for the largest mesas, the coldest icebergs, and the hottest lava in the world. He collected these materials _****_and made three golems in the memory of his race; Regice, Regirock, and Registeel. He hid these golems across a secluded island in the south sea, and returned to his palace with a piece of each golem in hand. He sat upon his throne and became dormant, awaiting the correct time awaken again to avenge his fallen kingdom. Only the three golems united can awaken their creator.'  
_**

I was so much awe due what I had just heard, I just stared dumbly at Sapphire. When I got some of my wits back, I noticed tears falling down her cheeks. "You're crying." I stated a bit dumbly, as I was still recovering from that information dump. Regigas shook Sapphire's head.

**_'No, I am not crying, for I have already accepted my people's fate long ago. The one you call Sapphire is crying for my people's memory.' _**The ancient king said solemnly. **_'So, disciple, what are you going to_ do?'** Before I could answer, Sapphire fell to her knees, but kept eye contact with me. **_'It seems that I have used too much energy for now. Farewell, disciple, and choose wisely.' _**Regigas said before Sapphire's body went limp and collapsed onto the cold ground.

"SAPPHIRE!" I yelled as I got onto my knees and scooped her head and torso up into my arms.

She was cold. Of course she's cold, her jacket got shredded in the evolution! Her eyes creaked open slowly. Her red eyes searched around a bit before they rested on my face. _'Aaron...'_ She said in a relieved just before her body went limp again. I tried to keep myself from panicking by reminding myself that she is still breathing. I gathered her up bridal style, quickly noticing her increase in weight due to her evolution, and started to make my way back up to the entrance. Since I had the route memorized from when we came down here, and I wasn't examining nearly everything in the hopes of finding something, I made it back to the entrance in only 20 minutes. Fast in comparison to the few hours it took us when we came here, but no time slower than "right damn now" is fast enough when Sapphire's life may be on the line.

I stopped on the first step of the ruins, and noticed two important things: Sapphire was beginning to shiver a lot, and there were snow flakes beginning to fall. When I was in the town proper getting directions, I was warned that there was a snowstorm about to come through. It seems I had a choice; wait here and hope that Sapphire doesn't need medical attention immediately, or try to get to the town's pokemon center before the weather got too bad. The answer seemed obvious to me as I set Sapphire down and began to strip off my own coat. Once my coat was off of me and on Sapphire, I reached into my bag and grabbed the little heater the quartermaster had given me. I gave it about ten seconds worth of adrenaline and desperation infused cranking, picked Sapphire back up, and set it onto her chest so it could heat both of us as the small coils grew red with life-giving heat.

My mad dash back to Snowpoint passed in such a blur, I wouldn't have remembered it had my senses not come back when I got to the pokemon center. It was snowing heavily now and the heater had disappeared somewhere along away, but considering I was still alive, I think it did its job well enough.

I burst through the door with Sapphire in my cold, jittering arms. "N-nurse, p-p-please help h-her." I said as I made my way to the desk. The nurse made a shocked face and ordered a gurney for Sapphire so she could be taken into evaluation. When it arrived, I laid her down, still in my green coat. I would have followed them, but I was so cold I couldn't resist when one of the Chansies directed me towards a recovery room for trainers who got caught in the cold. It was empty, save for me, so the pink pokemon just sat me down in front of the heater and returned a few minutes later with some blankets. I was too cold to resist, so I just sat there and soaked up the heat.

Several minutes later, the nurse came into the recovery room. "Your Lucario seems to be suffering from exhaustion after a forced evolution, but she'll be fine after some bed rest. She would recover quicker if she were in her ball, do you have it on you?" The nurse asked politely. The words "it should be around her neck" were halfway out of my mouth when I remembered it wasn't there anymore. I tried to rack my brain for where the ball may have gone.

"It was still on her..." I whispered when I realized that she still had it on when she evolved, which meant it was most likely destroyed.

"Hm? Didn't catch that, can you speak up?" The nurse asked.

"Oh, sorry. She had it on her when the evolution happened, so the ball was probably destroyed." I said, sounding a bit dejected with the last few words.

"Okay then... but I recommend you get a replacement as soon as possible, for the safety of you _and _your pokemon." She said, sounding very much like a generic after school special. After that, she left, probably to man the desk again. I stayed in the recovery room for about an hour and a half before enough life returned to my limbs for me to get up. I was surprised to see that it had already gotten dark, even though it was just six o'clock. I headed back to the main desk and asked if I could be shown to Sapphire's room. While the nurse was a bit hesitant due to her thinking I might be sick, I managed to convince her I was fine.

"Visiting hours end in half an hour, so don't be long." The nurse warned me from the door as I took a seat next to Sapphire's bed. I mumbled my thanks as I began to gently stroke her cheek, with just enough force for me to feel it, while being light enough so Sapphire wouldn't be awoken because of me. She looked so peaceful, all tucked in and covered up in blankets. I felt a smile tug itself onto my face, and I let it stay. Before I knew it, my half hour was up, but I didn't care, I just sat there and stroked Sapphire's side as the minutes went by, wishing she could always be this safe and at peace.

"That was a very brave thing to do." A quiet voice from the doorway brought me back to reality. I looked and saw that it was the same nurse from the desk. She must have come to get me, but couldn't bring herself to intrude until now. "Carrying your Lucario all the way here from the temple is one thing, but doing that after giving her your coat _in a blizzard_ is something else entirely. You must care for her very much."

I looked to Sapphire, then back to the nurse. "I do. Thank you." I said as I moved to get up.

"Oh no no no, you don't really have to leave if you don't want to, I'm the only nurse on staff and it looks like you'd prefer to be with her tonight." The nurse quickly explained as she motioned me to sit back down. I took my seat again and looked up to the nurse, a smile of gratitude on my face.

"Thank you, Ma'am, you're very kind." I said truthfully.

"Oh, it's nothing... Well, good night." the nurse said as she left, closing the door for the final time that night.

"Good night." I said before the door closed fully. I turned my attention back to Sapphire and began stroking her again. I don't know how much time passed before I felt the day's events catch up to me, leaving my limbs feeling like they were full of lead. However, I do know that I kept stroking Sapphire, as if to make sure she was still there, still safe, until sleep claimed me.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~  
**Ooh, it's getting good now, isn't it?**

**Please leave a review, and thanks for reading.**


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